Beyond Expectations
by filesfreak4life
Summary: Sequel to No Declarations or Expectations. Castle and Beckett are recovering from their run in with someone from their past, while trying to make a family together. Caskett Love... :)
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note: All right, so I did decide to do a sequel to No Declarations or Expectations because a lot of you said that you would be interested. I admit that it is coming slow, so bear with me as I'm getting into the story. I promise that I won't rush through the pregnancy… I know that so many get frustrated with that, so I'm going the slow route. Review if you would like!**

"So that's all I have to do?" he asks the doctor, eyebrows up in the air.

"That's all you have to do Mr. Castle. It is going to be most uncomfortable this first week, but after that, it should start calming down a bit. You were lucky that it was a clean break… it doesn't appear that we are going to have to do any surgery."

"Yeah, well, thank you. Can you point me in the direction of my wife now?"

"I believe that my colleague has her up in the OB/GYN suite. Said that you put up quite the fight to stay with her."

"She put me in my place though." Castle says with a laugh.

"How long have you been married?"

"For real… not even a week. In my head… years."

The doctor laughs, escorting him out of the small office and showing him the way to the stairs and elevator where he can find his wife.

"Dad! What did the doctor say?" Alexis says, coming out of the elevator just as Castle is trying to get up to where the doctor directed. She was the one who insisted on coming with the two to the hospital, while Martha and Jim went back to the loft to get a meal ready for the group.

"He wants to see me in six weeks. Six weeks in the sling, and if it starts feeling worse and doesn't start getting better after a week or so, I need to see him again as well. Did Kate send you down?"

"She did. They wanted to do an ultrasound and she said that you didn't get to see the first one… thought that if you were nearly done they could wait for you."

He smiles a large smile before linking his good arm with his daughter's.

"I… ummm… I'm glad you're okay. I'm glad she found you."

"I wouldn't expect anything less of Kate, button… she always gets the bad guy."

"Dad." Alexis says then, in a voice that forces him to turn and stop to look at his daughter, who has fresh tears in her eyes.

"What is it?" he asks.

"You can't do that to us again. I don't want you doing this anymore. It's too dangerous… I just… I've gotten close to Kate and thinking about her being a cop makes me realize that she's going to put herself in danger and that scared me… but then I realized that you are always right next to her. You're always there for the danger, and I can't lose my parents… and I want my baby brother or sister to know BOTH of their parents…. And Kate… she can't take this again… I've never seen someone so lost."

"Alexis, this was a fluke…"

"No, it wasn't… how many times have you come home to tell us a story about chasing down some suspect, getting shot at, getting locked in a freezer… this wasn't a fluke, it was part of the pattern."

"So what do you want me to do?" he asks hesitantly, knowing exactly what his daughter is asking.

"Quit… stop shadowing Kate… or… at least can you guys be more careful with things? All the rules that Gates agreed to with the suspects and when you guys go arrest people while Kate is pregnant. Why can't that be all the time?"

"Have you told her you feel this way?"

"No… but I'm telling you. This just… this felt different this time…"

He moves to hug her to him with his good arm, kissing the top of her head like he usually does to comfort her, "I'll talk with Kate, Alexis. She and I will have that conversation, okay?"

Alexis nods and they step into the elevator to get up to where Kate is with her doctor, being escorted back to the room right away.

"I got him!" Alexis says, entering the room with her father right behind.

With a large smile, Kate looks to her husband after telling the younger Castle thank you. "You ready to see the baby?"

"I am. Where's the doctor?"

"She went to go get all the equipment she needed for the ultrasound. Said she would be back in a few minutes. What did the doctor say for you?"

"I have to keep it in the sling for 6 weeks. If it starts getting worse after these first weeks, I need to go back."

"You're lucky." She says quietly, and Castle notices Alexis turn to him at the admission.

"That's something we're going to talk about when we get out of here… as a family." He says, placing one hand on his wife's and one hand on his daughter's shoulder.

They are distracted away from their private moment when the doctor knocks on the door wheeling some equipment in the room.

"I'll wait outside." Alexis says, starting toward the door.

"No! Alexis, you can stay… in fact, I want you to stay so you can see your baby brother or sister." Kate replies, holding a hand out to the girl.

"Are you sure?" she asks.

"It's okay that she stays, right?" Kate asks her doctor, who is still setting things up.

"I'm okay with it as long as you're okay with it." Dr. Meyers says with a smile. "Now lets look at this little one to make sure that everything is going okay in there… lift up your shirt, Kate.

She does as the doctor says, and flinches a bit when the gel goes on her stomach. That's when everything goes quiet except for the rapid breathing of everyone in the room waiting to see or hear anything.

"Here we go." The doctor says, flipping a switch and filling the room with a whooshing sound, "Baby's heartbeat looks and sounds good. Your blood pressure is down significantly, so I would say that we are out of hot water. Let me look around a minute though so I can get you guys a good picture to see…" she says, moving the wand around as the group waits to look at the little one. "… and this looks like a great angle."

Alexis gasps, watching as the baby on the screen moves his or her arms while they are watching, "that's so cool!"

"So cool, but something that you are going to be waiting a VERY long time to experience first hand." Castle says, not even taking his eyes off the screen.

"Question for the group… do you want to know what the baby is?"

"We decided that we didn't a few weeks ago… can you tell now?" Kate says.

"I can."

"I totally want to know!" Alexis says with a laugh, and Castle smiles at her enthusiasm.

"How about this… I can put it in an envelope and if you guys change your mind, you can open it later." The doctor suggested which has Alexis smiling even wider.

"You know what, I have an even better idea. Tell our daughter, and if we want to know… we ask…. But Alexis, both of us have to tell you at the same time that we want to know… otherwise you can't tell us." Kate says and looks up to find Castle smiling down at her.

"Can I tell Gram?"

"No!" both adults shout, knowing that the older woman could never keep something like this to herself.

"You're probably right… bad idea."

After a moment of writing a few more things down, the doctor speaks again, "While I know that the blood pressure incident was the result of something out of the ordinary, I'm still going to treat you like I would if someone just came in with that presentation. With that said, I would like you to come in for the next few weeks so I can monitor the blood pressure and make sure that it isn't always so up and down. And I can print off a few more pictures for you two, which will be waiting at reception when we are done here… which also will give me the opportunity to tell your daughter the sex of the baby. So… scoot!"

With matching smiles, the pair exits the small office into the reception area, leaving Alexis in with the doctor.

When she comes out to join her family, she is smiling wide and has a twinkle in her eye.

"Oh no… it's another girl… the house will be full of females." Castle says, seeing her expression.

"I'm not telling either of you anything, so don't worry about it." Alexis replies, knowing that of the two of them, he father is going to be the one to crack first.

"Besides, Castle… maybe the twinkle in her eye is because it's a boy and she knows that he'll be just as crazy as you and she wants you to get a taste of your own craziness?"

"She's right, dad, I could be thinking that…"

"I don't like the two of you so buddy buddy… you get all… gang up on daddy on me…" he says with a small frown.

Kate kisses his forehead then and walks past him with Alexis in tow, "Come on, you big baby. My dad and your mom are waiting for us at the loft with food."


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Note: Here is another chapter in this little series. Someone asked to delve into this aspect of things, and I liked the idea, so I'm going with it. P.S. Who else is sooooo flipping excited for the new episode on Monday!? Review if you would like!**

They ate a quiet meal that evening as a family, not mentioning much about the actual incident, but talking about the future and what they were going to do with the baby's room.

"What color should we paint the room Alexis?" Castle asks nonchalantly, in hopes of getting her to slip.

She pauses for a moment before answering, glaring at her father, "I suppose that a light green or a pale yellow would be nice."

"I like that." Kate says, oblivious to Castle's attempts and more focused on her food.

"Baseball or Princess Castle?" he says, ignoring Kate's reply.

"Neither… maybe a spring scene." Alexis challenges him with another stare.

"That's a cute idea, Lex." Kate adds.

"Pink or Blue as the accent color?" Castle tries again.

"A white chair rail…" Alexis counters.

"Ooh… and white crown molding." Kate replies.

Martha and Jim had watched the scene unfold before them with much amusement. They didn't understand why Castle was grilling Alexis in such a way, but Kate's obliviousness was the icing on the cake.

"Excuse me you two… what is this about?" Martha asks, pointing between Alexis and her father.

"She knows the sex of the baby, and she's not allowed to talk about it!" Castle says, glaring back at his daughter much like a little boy when he has been punished.

"Richard Castle!" the shrill voice cuts through and everyone turns to look to the unexpected source.

"Kate!?"

She realized about two seconds after Martha asked her question that the line of questioning from Castle had absolutely nothing to do with future nursery ideas and everything to do with finding out what the sex was. "No! You will not grill our poor daughter for information. We came up with this plan and as far as I know, I haven't told her that I wanted to know what this baby is… and per our deal she can't tell us anything unless both have agreed and are present."

"I was just…"

"Nope." She says, effectively shutting him up for the rest of the meal. "Though I did like the idea of a green or yellow room with the white chair rail. Maybe even paneling below it? That would be sweet."

* * *

"I love you both." Alexis says as the family finally retires for the evening. Jim had already left, Martha was in her room, so it was just Castle, Kate, and Alexis still up.

"We love you too." Castle says, stepping into the bedroom with his wife.

She sits on the bed for a moment, watching him grab his bed clothes, and letting herself think hard on the day and week they had.

"You're thinking way too loud over there, Kate." He finally says, gently pulling off his shirt and trading it for a tank top that he can easily maneuver over his frame.

"Are we going to talk about it?" she asks.

"No. We aren't."

"Castle…" she says with caution.

"As far as I'm concerned… everything is fine. You're fine, the baby's fine, I'm home, and we don't have to talk about it Kate. I… can't right now… I just can't." he says, finally breaking a bit at the end and sitting next to her on the bed.

She grabs his hand when he sits down, "Then everything isn't fine, Rick. You need to talk about it."

"Give me some time. I just need time to get back into now… then we can tackle it."

She glares at him a bit, through narrow eyes and then realizes that he may be right about needing a little time. So she stands and lets herself get ready for bed.

The second they get in bed he realizes the clavicle break isn't going to be as easy to deal with as he expected.

"Dammit!" he says when he lays down.

"Let's prop your left side up on some pillows so your arm doesn't drop." Kate tells him, seeing his problem.

"But then… I can't…" he starts, allowing his head to fall back on the pillow with an exasperated sigh. "I need to feel you, Kate. I need to feel the baby and I need to feel you… I need to know you're right here."

A tear falls from her eye at that, finally seeing him admit some of the fear and emotions that coursed through him the past days.

"Nope… we'll prop you up on this side and you can lay on your back. I can curl into your right side all you want. I'm not going to let my human oven get away that easily, you know."

"So that's all I am to you?" he asks teasingly, trying to make light of the situation that they were in.

"So much more than that… now we need sleep because I'm sure that neither of us got any the past few nights."

* * *

Pregnancy made you pee… constantly. She turned in his arms, seeing that he was still asleep. When she pried herself out of his arms, she quietly made her way to the bathroom, hoping to not wake him from his slumber.

She paused for a moment to look at herself in the mirror afterwards, seeing that her eyes were still red and the bags were still packed underneath them so to speak. That's when she heard it.

"NOOOOOOOOO!"

It was a blood curdling scream that probably woke the rest of the apartment and had her running back into the bedroom.

"Castle! Rick!" she said, reaching for him as he thrashed.

"Don't do this! Don't do this again! She doesn't deserve this!" his continued screams were not helping her get through to him.

"RICK! It's Kate! Come on!"

At that, his eyes snapped open and he searched for her face, pulling her in for a kiss before flipping her onto the mattress so she was on her back.

"Castle, what are you…" she starts, but is rendered speechless when he lifts up her shirt, places a hand on her stomach and then rests his head right beside it on her bump and proceeds to sob.

"Kate?" she hears coming from the doorway and looks up to see Alexis looking at the pair with concern.

"It was a nightmare… he… he had a nightmare." She says, as she strokes his hair while he continues to cry.

"Katherine, should we call someone?" Martha asks.

"Yes…. Um… Dr. Burke… he's in my phone… he was my therapist after the shooting, and… I trust him… Rick will trust him. See if he can get here… Rick has to talk."

Martha nods behind her granddaughter, moving towards the nightstand to grab her phone to call the doctor. All the while, Alexis can't take her eyes off her father, sobbing into Kate's stomach.

"Alexis… go help your grandmother… and why don't you make your dad some tea… it will calm him down later." She says quietly, hoping to get the girl to snap out of it, but not succeeding, "Alexis?"

"Tea… yeah, I'll get some tea." She says, her eyes darting to her stepmother and back to her father before she walks out of the room.

Then her attention is back to Castle, heart breaking as he clutches her.

"Castle, I'm okay…. The baby's okay… you're okay. Come on, Rick… look at me." She says carefully, trying to break him out of this trance.

"The baby…" he says, moving his hand in circles on her stomach.

"Yeah, Castle, the baby is fine… remember we got the picture yesterday and you got to hear the heartbeat."

He nods, still not fully acknowledging what was going on around him.


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's Note: Sorry about the delay of updates. I've been doing a lot of randomness, so life got in the way. I hope that you enjoy this installment of my little Expectations universe. Review if you would like!**

Two hours later, Martha knocks quietly on the bedroom door.

"Katherine?"

"Hmmm?" Kate says, still in the same position as hours ago, with Castle asleep on her stomach and her hands still stroking his hear.

"Dr. Burke is here. Do you want me to show him in here… or…"

"No, let me try to get Rick awake first and I'll explain what happened. If I need help, I'll call for you." She says, looking down to see him finally sleeping after all the crying he had done.

She strokes his hair a few more times before touching his cheek gently, "Castle… babe, wake up."

"Kate… no…" he mumbles into her skin.

"Rick, you need to wake up, and I need to go to the bathroom again." She says, starting to shift from under him.

"NO!" he screams, sitting up quickly and looking around the room franticly in search of his wife, who was still right in front of him.

"Kate?" she hears coming from the doorway again… another familiar voice, but one that she wasn't sure Castle would want to hear. "you okay?"

"I'm fine." She calls out, before looking to Castle, whose eyes were still wild.

"Rick, Alexis made some hot water for tea, and you could use something to calm you down…. Why don't we go out to the living room?"

"You're coming with me?" he asks, still not fully awake.

"Always…" she says, grabbing onto his hand and walking out of the bedroom to find Martha and Alexis wide awake and sitting at the kitchen counter with being joined by the doctor.

"Who are you?"

"I'm Dr. Burke. I know that Kate has told you about me before. I know that she's told me a lot about you. I heard that you might need to talk to someone."

He looks between Kate and the doctor and back to the rest of his family before throwing his hands in the air and turning back around and heading to the bedroom.

Kate lets out a sigh before telling them that she would go speak to him first, and if that didn't work, the doctor could feel free to barge into the bedroom.

"Castle." She says entering the bedroom to find him sitting on the end of the bed.

"I said that I wasn't ready to talk. I needed to get back to normal first."

"Nothing about tonight was normal, Rick. Can't you see that?"

"What do you mean?"

"Rick, you woke the entire apartment screaming at the top of your lungs because I went to the bathroom. Then when I finally got you to snap out of that, you flipped me over and proceeded to sob into my stomach talking about the baby. You couldn't even answer me. Martha and Alexis came running and I told them to call Dr. Burke. I want you to talk to him. At least to try to figure out what the dream was…"

"This isn't going to help."

"It helped me." She says in a voice so small that he barely recognizes it.

She had gone through a lot with her shooting, and after it all hit bottom, she had gone back to this Dr. Burke to talk about it. She told him that she didn't want to talk about anything right away, claiming that she was fine. When she had the run-in with the sniper though… it changed. It all got too real for her, and it forced her to talk and be real with the man. It got her back to him in a way.

"I don't know how to do this." He says, in the same quiet voice.

"I know… but I didn't either, and I'm still here. Castle, just listen and talk to him. I can be there with you if you want. I just want you to know that you can let it out in a healthy way."

"I don't… I don't think I want you to hear all of this yet… I don't… this is stupid." He says, having an internal conversation.

"Rick, nothing is stupid to me if it matters to you."

"I don't want the baby to hear it… I know that he or she probably doesn't have ears right now and no idea about what we are saying, but I just don't want that yet."

She looks at him with more adoration than she thought she could in that moment, realizing how breakable this man really was, how thoughtful he was.

"Do you want me to bring him in here?" she finally asks.

"No… the office. I feel at home in there, like I have the upper hand." He says honestly, and she knows that it is because he doesn't want to feel vulnerable. What she would have given to have a session in the interrogation room when she was going through everything…for him to see her in a place that she had so much power in the day to day.

"Okay, I'll grab the tea that Alexis made and show him in there. What do you want from us?"

"I want you guys to try to go back to bed. You said I woke everyone up a few hours ago, and it's five now. Getting up at three in the morning isn't enough sleep for anyone… especially my pregnant wife."

"Take as long as you need." She says, leaving the room to go tell everyone the plan.

* * *

He really was very comfortable in this room, the room where he penned several bestsellers, including the ones that led him to his beautiful wife. It was a place of relaxation, work, power, play, and everything all rolled into one. Now it was where he was going to show his soul to this Dr. Burke, and he didn't know where to start when the man walked in. Wait… yes he did.

"Thank you." he says simply as the man sits down across from him.

"You aren't the first man I've seen in crisis Mr. Castle… I'm here at all hours." He replies.

"No… I mean for Kate. Thank you for helping Kate. She was… she was just so lost after her shooting. It was so unlike her and she wasn't the Kate that I had fallen in love with… but at the same time, seeing the vulnerable side of her made me love her even more. I'm glad that you helped her through that."

"I see."

"You see what?"

"I assure you that Kate has given me the permission to share these things with you, but I find it amusing that you started your journey talking about her."

"And why is that amusing?"

"Simply because one of the things we talked most about during her therapy sessions was you, Mr. Castle." The doctor says with a grin.

"Me?"

"Yes… she told me everything that happened that day, and one of the things that she struggled most with was that you told her how you felt. She didn't feel worthy of that at the time."

Rick takes a moment to let his mind spin around that idea, then smiles when thinking about how far they had come since that day.

"I've never felt about anyone as strongly as I feel about Kate. From the moment that I met her, she intrigued me. She was a mystery to me where all other women put everything out there for me to see. She didn't fall for my tricks, she wasn't swayed by my charm, and she was the most beautiful woman I'd ever met. If anything… there are days that I don't feel worthy of her."

"But you have her… you married her… you are expecting a child together… it seems you are both headed in the right direction. You've overcome those obstacles."

That's when he thinks back on the past few days for the first time since starting to talk with the man. Kate once confessed to him that she was afraid that if they got together something would happen to either of them. Even when they weren't together, things happened to threaten them. If they were together, it would be ten times worse.

"Just to be handed more obstacles… we've been shot at before, we've been shut in a freezer together, we've almost died in front of a bomb together, she's shot a man to save me… that was before we were together… and then right when we get it… it all comes back…"

"Most couples can't say that they've survived anything like what you described. You've gotten through it before. What made this different? Is it just that you were finally together?"

"No… it… part of it was the baby."

"How far along is she?" he asks.

"Almost 18 weeks already. Nearly halfway there. God she's so perfect with all of this… we… uh… we didn't plan the baby. Hell we didn't really plan what made the baby in the first place." Castle laughs, thinking back on the rollercoaster that was the start of the two of them being together. "Everyone said that the two of us sleeping together was inevitable. Even I thought that. I wanted it to be more though… that first time. She did too, but she was still recovering from her shooting. She told me that she had things to still work through."

"I remember her coming in after that…" he says, and Rick's eyes shoot up to his, "there weren't details, but she explained that the two of you had crossed that line, that she was now completely convinced that she was in love with you. I've never seen someone visibly lift up at the fact that the weight of the world had been lifted off their shoulders."

"A couple months later, she found out she was pregnant."

"It wasn't planned… so how did you feel about it?"

"Honestly, I was thrilled. I loved being a father already. To do that with Kate was a dream come true. However I was nervous about what she thought."

"Meaning what?"

"As you may know… Kate likes to build these walls up around her, and getting through them is hard. I was worried that the baby was going to be something that made her put up a wall because she was scared about the situation."

"Did she?"

"No… for once we got it right and made sure that we were talking."

"So, do you think that you communicate now, better than you did before you were together, before the pregnancy?"

"It's… different. On a professional level, we have always been on the same wavelength. We would get made fun of at the precinct for how we finished each other's sentences or said the same thing at the same time. The guys would joke that we practiced when they weren't around. However, with personal matters, we've always taken tiny steps with each other… letting each other in slowly." He recalls, remembering finding out about her mother, finding out about rebel Beckett, and finding out all these small things that made her more extraordinary to him.

"You don't think you can tell her about this though? It has to do with your line of work… something that happened as a result of the job, that professional communication."

Castle tensed at what he was getting at, bringing up the topic that they were really in here to discuss.

"No… that was all personal." He says quietly.

"Why?"

At this question, he stands up quickly, walking over to the door and opening it to find Kate asleep on the couch in the living room. He was intending on telling the good doctor to leave so he could get some sleep, but seeing her like that made him stop. He knew then that she had tried to wait up for him, which made this all harder.

"It was personal because every second I was with that man he was telling me that the next woman he was bringing in was her. He showed me the first woman, with a jacket tossed over her head and her small abdomen raised and slashed. Told me it was her."

"You believed him."

"No, because I had just left her. I'm in the habit of memorizing every glorious moment with my wife now that I have her, so I knew what she was wearing… I knew that it wasn't her. It didn't make me feel any better though, because I knew then that he _wanted_ me to think it was her. He was doing this to get at me… us. It was personal."

"Tell me about that morning, Rick."


	4. Chapter 4

**Author's Note: Here we go with another short installment. It has been a terrible week, but I like writing, so here you go! Review if you would like!**

"I caught her staring at herself in the mirror. She would hate for anyone to know that, but ever since she really embraced the pregnancy, I could just see the joy in her eyes. There used to be this cloud behind them. They were still gorgeous and she was still beautiful, but there was this pain in them that I was aware of. It was gone that morning and I snuck up behind her to tell her how much I loved her. It was so new… the normalcy of the act. Then I left to get her coffee at Java Hut and she finished getting ready for work."

"Why did you go somewhere to get the coffee and not just make something at home?" he asked, actually knowing that the coffee thing was something shared between the two of them, but wanting to hear his version of why.

"It's our thing. I bring a cup to her every morning at the precinct just to get a smile. I have since I first started shadowing her, and I can't stop now… it's just our thing."

"So what happened next? Did you make it to the Java Hut?"

"No. I uh… I was walking… and he… he was behind me or off to the side… I can't remember exactly what happened because the next thing I remember is waking up next to him at that crime scene I mentioned earlier."

"Did he say anything to you?"

"He said that he thought it was sweet that I would still get Kate her coffee now that she was my wife. Said that you shouldn't give pregnant women coffee, and then told me that I didn't have to worry about taking care of them anymore."

"Is that when he showed you the body?"

Castle nods, remembering the way Tyson watched him when he realized what he was seeing. For a split second he thought that it was her, and then remembered what she had been wearing that morning. He remembered the way his eyes sparkled like a kid showing off his new drawing to mom and dad. It was sick.

"Mr. Castle." Dr. Burke says, laying a hand on his shoulder to bring him back.

"I'm sorry…. I just."

"That's okay. In fact, why don't we take a break and revisit this another time. I think the fact that you are able to talk about it and remember details is actually a good thing. Sharing with Kate will help this process as well, but I understand why you are hesitant. Let's talk later this week?"

"Thank you." Rick says, standing up and letting the man out of the office and then the loft.

He takes his time walking back to her sleeping form, a smile on his face when he notices that she sleeps with a grin and her hand covering her stomach in a protective way. He sits on the table across from her, just thinking for a moment about everything that has happened in the past few months, realizing how lucky he is that they are together and that they are who they are to each other.

"Kate…" he whispers, reaching out a hand and stroking the side of her face.

"Castle?" she questions, looking up to see him sitting there, staring at her. "Where is Dr. Burke?"

"We talked and we are going to talk again sometime later this week, but I was… I was spent after tonight."

She nods, sitting up on the couch and motioning for him to come sit down.

"I remember that there were certain nights that I would come home from therapy and just… sitting… thinking through everything that we had just talked about and realizing how absolutely exhausted I had been from keeping everything in for so long…" she trails off, catching him looking at her with an expectant gaze. "What?"

"I just… we've come a long way, and it just makes me love you more and more knowing what you have gone through. Letting me in like this is hard for you, and I know that the subject matter may be a bit rough, but I still appreciate it."

"I want you to know that I get it. I get the helplessness of the situation and I get wanting to bottle it up. I won't claim that I know what you went through, but I do get parts of it."

"Kate, I love you." He finally says after a moment of them sitting on the couch, just being with each other.

"I love you too, Rick… I don't think that I'll ever get to say that enough to you, but it's true." She smile, leaning over to kiss him lightly on the lips.

"Now I think that you need to get some sleep. No work for you tomorrow… you didn't get enough good sleep tonight."

She nods. "Gates gave me a few days to make sure that everything is good here before coming back to work. You've got me for a little while."

He smiles back at her, standing and outstretching his hand to lead her into the bedroom.

* * *

Alexis sneaks into their room around ten o'clock, walking over to Kate's side of the bed and kneeling down to whisper. "Kate?"

"hmm?" she says, without opening her eyes to the younger Castle.

"I made breakfast. I didn't know if you and dad wanted something."

Kate's eyes open then, and she smiles at the girl kneeling beside the bed. "I'm hungry, but I think we should save it for your dad for later."

She takes a moment to scan Castle's features, making sure that he is still fully asleep before maneuvering herself out of the bed.

Entering the kitchen, she finds Alexis plating up some eggs for Kate, with toast already waiting on a separate plate.

"I didn't know what the baby's thoughts towards bacon has been recently, so I didn't even make it."

Kate scrunches her nose up, remembering that the last time she ate bacon it didn't end well for anyone in the family.

"Baby is indifferent towards bacon, so I don't think that making it is a good idea. The toast is great, and I do think that I'll have some eggs this morning. Thank you, Lex."

"No problem." She says, with a smile that doesn't really reach her eyes.

Kate notices this, but is determined to let Alexis come to her on her own with anything. So they start to eat in silence, nibbling on their breakfast without any mention of the night before or the days that led to it.

"Where's Martha?"

"She said that she would be back around lunch time. She wanted to get some errands out of the way before you and dad woke up."

"I see…" she says, then noticing her cell phone sitting out from the night before, "Ooh, I should probably plug that in. I don't want to miss a call from the guys."

When she stands up to head toward the phone, she notices Alexis' visible flinch at the mention of the Ryan and Esposito. "Alexis?"

"How are you feeling this morning? Were you able to get some sleep last night?" Alexis asks, trying to take the attention off herself.

"Lex…" Kate starts, which is met by the girl grabbing her plate and throwing it in the dishwasher while spouting off an excuse about getting something done for school.

As she's running up the stairs, Martha is coming in the door.

"Hey, kiddo…" she says in her usual joyous tone, but changes immediately upon seeing her granddaughter, "Alexis?"

Alexis continues up the stairs, ignoring her grandmother and leaving Kate alone to finish her breakfast.

"What's wrong?" Martha asks, walking up to Kate, who was now standing to clean up her dishes.

"I'm going to give her a minute, and then I'll talk to her. I think that this whole ordeal finally caught up to her. That girl is not as resilient as Castle seems to think she is."

"Do you want company?"

Kate looks towards the stairs there, thinking about the times that she and her mom had heart to hearts after a blow up. It was always tears and hugs and confessions that were meant only for her mother. They were working towards that relationship, but she didn't know if they were there yet… ready to really bare all when it might mean something coming to light that wasn't meant to be.

"No, I think that she and I need to do this together."

Martha looks at her for a moment before continuing, "Katherine, I'm going to say this to you once and I would never say this in front of Alexis… but you are one of the best things for that girl. Meredith… what she did, what she still does with that girl's heart. I can't stand her. I only wish that you had come along sooner so Alexis could have the mother that she deserved all these years."

"Martha, don't underestimate your role in her life. She is who she is because of your role in her life. I'm sure that she would tell you that while it sucked not having her mother around… having you around made it better for her. Rick would say the same."

She nods dismissively and gestures towards the stairs, "Go talk to your daughter."


End file.
